RIOT GRRRL MANIFESTO
by dance life away
Summary: Kathryn only wanted a couple of things out of life: to get away from the Dursleys, to do something memorable, to graduate...but more than anything? She just really wanted to be something other than 'Harry Potter's little sister.' These are her adventures. AU. Rated for future chapters.
1. wholeheartmindbody

**RIOT GRRRL MANIFESTO**

summary: Kathryn only wanted a couple of things out of life: to get away from the Dursleys, to do something memorable, to graduate...but more than anything? She just really wanted to be something other than 'Harry Potter's little sister.' These are her adventures. AU.

disclaimer: I'm really JKR in disguise as shitty, 20-something fanfic writer. brilliant plan, right?

**note: this story is also posted on my Mibba account as "Rebel Without a Cause," which is also the title I originally posted it to with under a separate account which I have now lost the password to (thus I cannot delete the account or the other version of this story). But rest assured this one is much, much better. At least, I hope.

* * *

one: the-boy-who-just-won't-die

Lily Evans Potter could hear the conversation downstairs between Voldemort and her husband. She couldn't help but cry; James had told her to run, but she couldn't. How could he expect her to do that? What was life without James? She couldn't imagine. He had rudely invaded her life at age eleven and now, as an adult, she loved him - loved him so much it was painful. Almost as painful as the idea of taking her children and running away. How could she abandon him? No, Lily decided, she would stand her ground.

A fateful shout of 'Avada Kedavra!' and Lily let out a noise that wasn't unlike the sound of a drowning cat. She heard him -Voldemort-thumping up her stairs, but she refused to let panic set in. She was smart, she was capable, and she was not a coward. Quickly, Lily looked back at her children, the pang in her chest becoming worse. Her first-born was Harry, her beautiful, poor baby. He had some damned prophecy made about him that was bringing this all about, and all he did was look up at her with those precious eyes. Her eyes. They were a vivid, pure, and true green. It was good that Harry couldn't sense her fear, seemingly, as he gazed up at her, spit gurgling in the back of his throat. Lily fought to suppress her tears and remain strong. Her eyes flickered over to a small infant, about four and a half months old. Lily closed her eyes in horror of the thought that little Kathryn would never have a single memory of just how much she was loved. She got a good look at the girl, with her red fuzz that James called hair, and her light green eyes that held flecks of brown.

Lily knew she was going to die at the moment when Voldemort appeared in the nursery doorway. She would not, under any circumstances, let that poor excuse of a human being get anywhere close to her son.

"No, not Harry, please!" she begged, fruitless as the effort was, she felt she had to. Maybe there was a small bit of humanity left in this man, and maybe she could spark it.

"Move aside, silly girl." He demanded, wand raised, voice impatient. "I only want the boy!"

"You can't have him!" Lily sobbed. "I won't let you!"

"Foolish girl, I said move aside! Take your infant and go!" He was fed up, his wand pointed at the spot above her heart. She didn't believe him, didn't believe he'd let her just walk out the door. She _knew_ he wouldn't.

"NO!" Lily stood straight, the tears having stopped. The man's red slit eyes were narrowed more than usual, if it was possible, and he gritted his teeth. "Not my boy."

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Lily knew nothing more but the calming darkness that consumed her.

While the Wizarding World celebrated the defeat of Lord Voldemort, Albus Dumbledore made a decision that would alter the lives of the Potter children forever. Two little bundles were placed on the front step of Number 4 Privet Drive that night, and nothing would ever be the same.

* * *

& there you go! introduction.


	2. oh bondage, up yours!

**RIOT GRRRL MANIFESTO**

summary: Kathryn only wanted a couple of things out of life: to get away from the Dursleys, to do something memorable, to graduate...but more than anything? She just really wanted to be something other than 'Harry Potter's little sister.' These are her adventures. AU.

disclaimer: I'm really JKR in disguise as shitty, 20-something fanfic writer. brilliant plan, right?

I guess this is good a time as any to introduce the format for this fic. Chapters will not be fully fleshed and instead contain a series of snippets within a specific time period. Most, if not all, of the subsequent chapters will be structured around the books - so chapter three will follow the events of The Chamber of Secrets, and so on and so forth. This chapter contains a few moments from Kathryn & Harry's childhood + a few that take place during The Philosopher/Sorcerer's Stone.

* * *

1.

"Harry?" Kathryn asked, uncertain, as she rapped on the cupboard door. "Are you in there?"

A head of tousled black hair poked out as the door opened, but just barely, with a pair of bright green eyes which the girl would recognize anywhere.

"What is it, Kathy?" the young boy asked his sister, concerned.

"I can't sleep," she whimpered. "I'm having nightmares, and Dudley keeps running in and telling me to shut it or he'll do it for me, and I know there's not much room, but-"

Before she could continue to ramble, Harry gently took her hand and let her inside.

"Thanks," she muttered, smiling sadly.

"Anytime, Kathy. You're my sister; it's my job."

2.

It was the first day of primary, and Kathryn didn't know anyone. At home, she wasn't allowed anywhere beyond the backyard, and that was only if she'd finished all her chores and was good all day, too, which was really hard because Aunt Petunia was mean. All the other kids knew each other from Nursery.

She sat alone at the back of the room, quietly coloring while the rest of the students arrived. She had to get there early, Aunt Petunia said, because there was stuff to be done.

"Hi!" chirped the voice of one of the girls who had just walked in, smiling with pretty white teeth and sparkly blue eyes. "I'm May, who're you?"

"Kathryn," she said, not looking up. The only other kids she'd spoken to were her brother, her cousin, and her cousin's stupid friend Piers, and only Harry wasn't mean to her. One time, Piers pushed her into the wall and now she had an ugly scar on her forehead from when they had to go to the hospital.

Apparently, her lack of enthusiasm didn't bother the other girl, May, who sat down next to her and started talking some more.

"I'm pretty sure we live right across the street from you, I've seen you through the window sometimes. Why don't you just come outside? My sister's name is Mari but she's kind of like my mom too, because she's eighteen and takes care of me. I don't really know anybody because we moved her just a couple weeks ago, dunno why she picked this boring place. I'm a witch too, did you know? Mari can use magic, it's really cool..."

May went on and on, while Kathryn sat there silently, not really paying attention. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

3.

Petunia didn't know what to do about her niece anymore. Kathryn was, once again, in the basement as punishment, which seemed to become a startlingly regular occurrence for the girl. In fact, it often seemed her niece spent more time in the basement than in her own bed, all the way upstairs in Dudley's old bedroom. It used to be that Harry was the problem child, always making strange things happen, hence his relegation to the cupboard. Kathryn was never a perfect child, and looking at her was often a rather painful experience for Petunia, but the girl never used to put up much of a fight in the face of Petunia or Vernon's authority. She used to be so quiet, really. Where her brother had to try to be inconspicuous, it always seemed to be more natural for Kathryn. But lately, ever since she'd started primary and made a friend, she was trying Petunia's patience constantly. Kathryn became difficult about doing her chores and started asking pesky questions like "why?" And in situations when the usual "because I said so, now go!" would have done the trick, it only caused the small redhead to pout and stomp

"Marianne says to question everything," Kathryn would quip whenever Petunia told her to do something. Her niece had never been a perfect child, as previously stated, but at least before them she hadn't ever thought about prancing around the neighborhood and doing things Petunia told her not to. Frankly, Petunia Dursley considered May's upbringing to be "vulgar and irresponsible", among other things. And now that same influence was creeping its way into her niece's every action.

She only hoped that time and consistent punishment would do the trick. If she couldn't stamp magic out of Kathryn, then by God at least she would keep her disciplined. The last thing she wanted was another Lily! Sometimes she feared that was exactly who Kathryn was shaping up to be...except worse.

4.

"Kathryn!" shouted the voice of Aunt Petunia down the stairwell. "Upstairs, now!"

Kathryn bit her lower lip in frustration with her aunt, and reluctantly headed upstairs at her request. She ran upstairs to a frightening sight: the entire entrance way and what she could see of the living room was covered in envelopes! She picked one up of the ground; it was addressed to a "Mister H. Potter" of the "Cupboard Under the Stairs, Number Three Privet Drive". Kathryn gasped, how had they known Harry lived in the cupboard?

"Go upstairs and pack your things, girl." Aunt Petunia hissed at her. "We're leaving for a while."

"So why do I have to go?" Kathryn retorted. "You always left me here before."

"I said go!" Aunt Petunia repeated, voice raised a notch higher along with her hand, which hovered as a warning. "Do what you are told!"

Kathryn pursed her lips, almost daring her aunt to do it. But in the nick of time, she sighed and walked dejectedly up the stairs to her room. She just wasn't very good at the 'doing as your told thing.' She didn't want to be good at it. Maybe if her Aunt Petunia had adored her or something before she'd feel like her aunt's rejection of her were worse. But Kathryn always had the nagging feeling that there was something about her that her aunt just didn't like. It was different than with her uncle - he didn't like much of anything but Dudley and bacon - but she didn't know what. Not that her Uncle Vernon spent much time looking or talking to her; it was generally accepted that she was her aunt's domain as far as instruction and punishment went.

"Hurry up!" shouted the impatient voice of Petunia Dursley. "We're leaving now!"

Kathryn ran down the steps, a handful of essentials in her hand. Her aunt gave her a nasty look, like how you look at something gross that's attached itself to the bottom of your shoe. What is so wrong with me? Kathryn wondered, but at the same time wondering what was wrong with Aunt Petunia. The only conclusion she had ever come to was that she must be bad, but how she did not know. Or that Aunt Petunia was just a really angry person. Or maybe both. Aunt Petunia always had this dislike of Kathryn and Harry, ever since she could remember and probably before that too.

Dudley, Harry, and Kathryn were all stuffed in the back of the van as Uncle Vernon pulled out of the drive. The whole way to wherever they were going Dudley whined about being next to Kathryn and Harry.

"Mummy!" Dudley complained. "I don't wanna be next to these freaks!"

"Shush, Dudders." Petunia scolded. "Daddy wants it quiet."

She was quite right about that, Uncle Vernon had seemingly gone mad, thrown right off his trolley. He had been that purple color ever since Kathryn had seen him that day, so she knew something was seriously wrong. Kathryn knew something was very seriously wrong though, when they had been driving for much longer than even, even to London! She tried to peek around Dudley to see the scenery, but he was too fat, so she looked past Harry. They were at the coast. Kathryn gasped as they pulled into a parking lot next to the sea, where the waves were crashing into the sharp jagged rocks that were everywhere.

Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon hoarded the three children out of the car and they rented a boat. Kathryn trembled, a boat in this weather? Kathryn and the others all gathered in the boat and they set off. The destination was apparently a little rock that they called an island and stuck a house on it. She had no idea why they were doing any of this; she was completely in the dark about the whole thing. Kathryn decided she would ask Harry when they got settled in.

5.

"Kathy, I have to go away to school for a while," Harry said, as they sat at the kitchen table together that morning before he left.

"Yes, I'm not dumb, I know," she scoffed, angry that he was leaving her here with the Dursleys while he got to go off and learn spells and lots of other exciting things.

"Don't be upset," he exclaimed. "What am I supposed to do? Take you with me?"

"Whatever," Kathryn muttered. "I'm going to May's. See you at Christmas or whenever you get around to coming back."

With that, she got up and left the house without another word. Of course she didn't expect him to take her with him, or anything stupid like that, but it didn't make his leaving any easier. For as long as she could remember, Harry had been there for Kathryn, even sometimes when it got on her nerves. Now he was just going to be gone? And how could he write to her if Aunt Petunia would rather die than have someone see an owl fly to their windows?

It was in that moment Kathryn decided she didn't need Harry Potter to do anything for her. She didn't need his approval, his company, or anything else he had to offer.

6.

"May, can I come over?" a young, ten year-old Kathryn whispered into the phone receiver.

"Errr why are you whispering, you nut?" May asked, confused.

"Because I'm in a lot of trouble, I'm supposed to be locked in the basement right now, but somehow I got the door to open and everyone is asleep..."

"Yeah, sneak on over. When are they going to realize the basement isn't a good place to put a kid?"

"Probably never. But I'm on my way," Kathryn said quietly before hanging up the phone with a relieved sigh. Ever since Harry left, things had gotten so much worse. With only one freak to blame everything on, being Kathryn Elizabeth Potter really sucked right about now.

* * *

BAM.


	3. tired of nothing

**RIOT GRRRL MANIFESTO**

summary: Kathryn only wanted a couple of things out of life: to get away from the Dursleys, to do something memorable, to graduate...but more than anything? She just really wanted to be something other than 'Harry Potter's little sister.' These are her adventures. AU.

disclaimer: I'm really JKR in disguise as shitty, 20-something fanfic writer. brilliant plan, right?

So this is, as mentioned in the note from the previous chapter, centered around the events of The Chamber of Secrets. I'm sure that after this, if I get any comments/reviews, there will inevitably be one that mentions Kathryn's actions as a bit dramatic - as is her attitude about her brother, even in the previous chapter a little. But I will say this now:

1) Kathryn is a child. She is ten and eleven years old, she spent her childhood in the Dursley household, and her world is thrown entirely upside down. She is as much impressionable as Tom Riddle is manipulative and controlling.

2) This is my story and I get to do what I want with it; Kathryn is also my character and I like drama and tension! I like to make things interesting! It is my prerogative.

* * *

1.

Ever since Harry had returned to 4 Privet Drive for the summer, Kathryn's Uncle Vernon treated him like a bomb that could go off at any moment. The other day, he'd let loose on her brother because he'd tried to make a joke about 'please' being the magic word, only to have the entire household to go white as a ghost (well, purple as a grape in Uncle Vernon's case) before her uncle began tirade about "using the M word" in his house. It was exhausting.

Kathryn was still...bitter about being left behind with the Dursleys all year while Harry got to go and galavant about at Hogwarts. She knew there was nothing he could do but go, and yet it hadn't made her _feel_ any better. Of course, on her own eleventh birthday, just in May, she'd received a letter as well. The good part about having an older brother was that he got to be the guinea pig. Her aunt and uncle had simply been waiting for Kathryn's school-for-the-freaks acceptance letter to come, biding their time until they could send her away for the school year too. They hadn't made it easy for her, though.

The best part about getting her letter was when her best friend May burst unceremoniously into the Dursley house demanding to see it. It had caught Kathryn off guard - how did May know? Wasn't this stuff supposed to be a secret or something? And that was when May finally got to tell her best friend she was a witch too. Though, as Kathryn remembered after the fact, she was pretty sure May had blabbed the very first time they met. Good thing she hadn't actually been listening then.

"Kathryn!" her aunt's shrill voice interrupted her day-dreaming. "What did your uncle just ask you?"

"Uh," was the only word she could come up with, inwardly cringing at the glare she was given.

"I said, we are in position at eight 'o clock. Where will you be?" her uncle demanded, face turning the tell-tale shade of purple that meant she'd better get her act together.

"I will be in the kitchen, helping Aunt Petunia with dinner like the good, obedient niece that I am," she replied, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. Harry was all pouty about having to sit in his room pretending he didn't exist. What she wouldn't give to be the one who didn't exist! Fortunately for him, since Harry had been away at school all year, to the Masons he didn't know about him and had never met him. Well, what Kathryn would give not to have to exist for the stupid dinner party they were hosting. It would be painful, she knew it. As her aunt was constantly reminding her, she spent too much time with "those shameful Journey sisters" who were "a terrible influence" and who had caused Kathryn to develop "an unnecessarily smart mouth and disrespectful disposition." That didn't exactly mesh with snooty dinner party, did it?

Ugh.

2.

"I'm telling you Kathy, there was a house-elf in our room! He's the one who dumped the cake on the Masons!"

Kathryn still was a bit mad that it had gone from her room to "our" room every since Harry got back. It was like her aunt and uncle were all afraid to keep Harry in the cupboard anymore. Clearly it was spoiling him. Or he was just crazy after a year at that Hogwarts place. Hopefully she would not go as mental as him when she got there.

"House elf or not, whatever that is, I can't get caught talking to you! I'm only allowed to be in the room to sleep, remember?" she whispered impatiently, glancing down the hallway every few seconds to make sure no one was coming. "And now because of you they've put bloody bars on the windows! Thanks for that!"

"Kathy-" but she quickly slammed the door in his face when she heard footstep at the bottom of the steps, making their way up to the first floor landing, and she backpedaled so it looked like she was coming out of the bathroom.

"What are you up to?" Dudley asked, suspicious. "I'm going to tell my mum!"

"Dudley, I wasn't up to anything!" Kathryn tried to protest, but not five minutes later she found herself locked in the room with Harry.

"I really owe you one now," she huffed sarcastically, going to sit on the bed. Maybe if she just slept for lots and lots of hours the boredom would pass more quickly?

3.

"...I can't magic myself out, because the Ministry'll think that's the second spell I've done in three days, so-"  
"Stop gibbering, we've come to take you home with us."  
"But you can't magic me out either-"

Eleven year-old Kathryn Potter was woken in the middle of the night by the sound of not-so-quiet whispering. She peeked her head out from underneath her blanket to see her brother Harry with his head practically mashed between the stupid iron bars that had been put on them. Softly, she got out of bed to go over and make Harry shut his gob before he woke somebody else up and got her in even more trouble.

"Harry James Potter, I am going to _kill_-" was all she managed to angrily whisper before her eyes flew wide open at the sight of three redheaded boys floating in a car outside the window. Momentarily, she was speechless.

"Oh, Kathy this is my friend from school, Ron, and his brothers, Fred and George-"

"Hello there!" said one of them, waving brightly, while one of the others threw a rope at them and told Harry to tie it around the end of the bar. "We're busting Harry out!"

"Hi..." she said, still processing exactly what was in front of her. They were telling Harry to get in - wait was he going without her? Leaving her again? Oh no, that would not do.

"You are not leaving me here again," she turned to him and explained while one of the twins (? it was hard to tell in the dark) picked their lock. Kathryn wished she knew how to do that. Maybe they'd teach her?

"Hurry up, then," Harry said, distracted as he rushed to gather his things and pass them out the window.

For a minute, Kathryn wondered what it would be like to have a normal brother. Not as exciting, probably...

4.

The Weasleys were mostly annoying, loud, and too many in number. Being stuck in the Burrow with them for the rest of the summer was NOT going to be a fun experience and it didn't take long for her to regret the decision to come with them. When the group first arrived, a redheaded woman whom she assumed to be Ron, George, and Fred's mum started shouting really loudly, enough to wake the entire countryside in Kathryn's opinion. Not even Uncle Vernon was that loud. She'd been nice enough to her and Harry, though. There were lots of them, Weasleys, that is, and Kathryn had a hard to keep track of all the people living in the house. Mr. Weasley was a bit strange, to say the least, and Ron, her brother's friend, was plain obnoxious most of the time. There was also an older brother who drove her up the wall with his 'smarter-and-holier-than-thou' attitude. Apparently there were other older brothers as well, who didn't live with them anymore. The only two she could stand so far were the twins, who seemed to be pretty funny. And who had promised to teach her how to pick a lock. t

But no, she didn't get to share a room with the cool ones, now did she? Instead, Kathryn was stuck with the youngest of them all, a girl who was her age and about to start Hogwarts as well. The same girl who had seen her brother sitting at the breakfast table their first morning, gaped like a fish, and ran in the other direction with squeal. Brilliant.

"Hi, I'm Ginny," said the young girl, the only girl, introducing herself with a smile now that it was just the two of them.

"Kathryn," she replied simply, not particularly keen on making friends, especially not with Harry's friends. That was weird. This whole thing was weird. Urrghh. Why, again, did she feel the need to ask Harry to drag her along to stay with people she'd never met? That's what May's house was for.

5.

"That looks seriously stupid," Kathryn whispered to May as the two stood in line, waiting their turn with the Sorting Hat.

"It's magic," May shrugged.

"Journey, May!" the scary-looking woman announced, and with a trademark grin, her best friend hopped up to the stool and sat down. After a few short minutes, the Hat declared 'Slytherin!' for May, and Kathryn thought she'd like to be in that house, with May. Really, though, she couldn't help that she didn't care what house as long as she wasn't with Harry. She'd lived with him her whole life and she wanted to do this whole Hogwarts thing on her own, you know? After much fidgeting and impatiently waiting, finally "Potter, Kathyrn" was called. It was kind of creepy how everyone got quiet, watching her, and she guessed it was even worse for Harry during his, being that boy who just wouldn't die and all.

"Very curious," the Hat mused, its voice loud and clear deep inside her mind. _"Anywhere but Gryffindor, then? So keen to be the opposite of your brother. It's a shame, you have the potential to make quite the Gryffindor. But...you know what you want, no questions about that, and you certainly aren't the type to care who gets in the way. And what a chip you've got on your shoulder! Something to prove, eh?"_

"Would you hurry up already? Please?" Kathryn responded silently, nervously biting her lip.

_"Well, I'd say it's close, but...SLYTHERIN!"_

Taking the hat off slowly, Kathryn felt relieved to be in the same house as her best friend. That is, until she saw the looks on all of the faces in the crowd. Harry Potter's sister, in Slytherin? We don't want that Potter brat here... And the whisperings were not quite whispers, so she heard every word, but walked to the far table with her head held high and took a seat next to May.

"This is gonna be fun," the redhead joked with a smile, trying to show everyone at the table that they could whisper as much as they wanted but she didn't care (even though she did). It only took a few more seconds of it for her to silently decide she was going to prove she was so much more than some 'Potter brat.'

"Oh look, food!" May declared happily.

6.

When no one was around, Kathryn pulled the little black journal out of her trunk. She hadn't a chance to look at it properly, certainly not over the summer with that stupid Ginny girl nosing around (she was a Gryffindor, go figure), and now was the perfect chance. The dormitory was quiet for the first time in the week since she'd arrived at Hogwarts. Actually, now that she thought about it, it was pretty strange that the diary had mysteriously appeared among her things. A miracle, maybe. _Curiosity killed the cat_, warned a voice in her head. _And_ s_atisfaction brought it back!_ she retorted, arguing with herself and feeling rather stupid. But she opened it anyway, and began to scribble:

This is a blank journal. So I am writing in it.

_Hello, I am Tom Riddle. Who are you?_

Kathryn Potter.

Simply put, it was a disaster waiting to happen.

7.

Kathryn sat in her bed, late at night, writing furiously in her journal. Tom had become a very close friend. A fellow Slytherin, he understood her- unlike her idiot brother:

He's so infuriating! I'm perfectly capable of defending myself against Draco, who by the way, is a total prat, but he has to barge in and cause even more trouble for me. Doesn't he get it? I already have a hard enough time getting them to like me with Harry Potter as my brother.

_What do you mean, 'with Harry Potter as my brother'? What is significant about his name?_

As a baby, he defeated a Dark Lord and survived the killing curse or something. Nobody really know how. I was a baby too, so it's not like I can remember, but he came in, killed our parents, and tried to kill Harry. Proof that Harry's been ruining my life since day one!

_A Dark Lord...as an infant?_

One of the meanest, too! Lord Voldemort's what he called himself. So now Harry thinks he has free reign to be a "pompous idiot" as my head of house put it.

_I'm sorry that your brother doesn't understand you like I do. I also am sad to hear that Slytherins do not stick together any more, as they should. You deserve a real friend like me...you know, Kathryn, although now I am only a memory, it wouldn't take much to make me a living person. I just need you to do me a favor._

Anything!

_I don't know, Kathryn. You might not be up to it. People will get hurt. It's going to be dangerous._

She paused for a moment, staring hard at Tom's latest words. People would get hurt. But the idea of Tom as a living person...a physical, real someone who wasn't May to be on her side...Wasn't that worth danger? And who here did she really care about, anyway? Tentatively, she replied:

If I do this, will you promise to still be my friend?

_Of course, Kathryn. You couldn't get rid of me if you tried._

I'll do it.

8.

"Are you alright? You've seemed a bit off lately," May observed one morning at they sat and ate breakfast in the Great Hall.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, absently playing with the syrup she had smothered her pancakes with.

"Then why the heck have you been nice to Ginny Weasley lately?" she asked, suspicious. Kathryn sighed. As much as she loved May, she couldn't tell her about Tom and what they were planning. It was supposed to be their secret. Tom promised her that if they worked together, things would be so much better. But there was no room for a third. And May was her first friend, her best friend for such a long time, but how could Kathryn say her new best friend was a boy who lived in a diary? She was sure that once it was all over and Tom was real, May would love him as much as Kathryn did. Magic really was the coolest thing ever.

"Knowing Harry, I'm going to have to spend a lot of time with the Weasleys," Kathryn explained, making it up as she went. "So I should learn how to not want to punch her in the face every time I see her, right?"

"That will take a lot of time, I think" May joked, laughing a bit before taking another bite of her breakfast.

"So if your brother is a parselmouth, are you one too?" interrupted the voice of none other than Draco Malfoy, who was unfortunately sitting across the table from her. "Because you would make more sense as the Heir of Slytherin than that bumbling Gryffindor."

"Don't be stupid," she scoffed, almost scared how close to the truth he was.

9.

Sometimes Kathryn wasn't sure what to think about Professor Snape. The first time she entered his classroom, he tried not to look as though he'd seen a ghost. When she handed in her first potion, it was almost like he was proud. One day he asked her to stay after class.

"Miss Potter," he began. "I must admit I was surprised to see you sorted into my house. I mistakenly assumed you would be like your brother, though I must admit I am pleasantly surprised to find myself mistaken."

"Thank you, sir," she said, confused as to where the conversation was going.

"As Head of Slytherin House, I like to keep a close eye on all of my students, enough to notice when something isn't right. A few of your classmates have noticed you acting oddly, and I too have noticed. It is a cause for concern," he explained.

"I'm still doing well in all my classes," Kathryn pointed out. "And I don't know why you say friends, because we both know nobody in Slytherin likes me besides May, and we grew up together so she doesn't count."

"You are not answering the question," Professor Snape sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You didn't ask me a question, Professor," she said, acting confused. "I'm still getting used to having a celebrity as a brother and trying to make new friends. But everything is going to be fine, Professor Snape. You'll see."

He didn't know how to argue with that.

10.

_I would very much like to meet your brother, Kathryn._

She stared at the words on the page, biting her lip. Kathryn Potter did not want to share Tom Riddle with anyone, least of all her brother. It was bad enough that she'd had to share him with Ginny Weasley, but now this? So she put down the only thing she could think of, even though afterwards it made her feel like more of a child than she already was.

Why? So you can be convinced of how wonderful he is too?

_Kathryn, you know that I'm on your side, don't you? I'm not going to choose between you. There is no choice._

Then why do you want to meet him at all?

_It's only fair to let him tell his side of the story. I would just like to form my own opinion. Is that really so horrible?_

No, I suppose not...everyone just thinks he's so special, even the people who don't like him because of it. I don't want you to like him better than you like me.

_It's he who should be jealous of you, not the other way around._

I'm not jealous!

_Good, because there's no need to be. I'm doing this for you, because I care about you, not about your brother. He should know how lucky he is. Let me show him._

11.

So that was how Ginny and Kathryn got in an argument. Ginny was starting to feel suspicious about the diary. She confided to Kathryn that ever since October she'd been having these blank moments where she couldn't remember where she'd been or where she was going. Would wake up with rooster feathers on her clothes. Kathryn, not knowing what to do, said she'd been having the same sorts of experiences. They'd been fighting about it since Christmas, really. Ginny was sure there was something bad about the diary. That meant she wasn't as stupid as Kathryn originally thought.

"I'm sure it's not the diary, Ginny," she told her one January afternoon, as they argued in the empty girl's toilets on the second floor.

"What else would explain it, then?" Ginny asked, arms crossed.

"Here's a better question: why would Tom do anything like that to us? He cares about me - about you. Don't you believe him?"

Ginny seemed to struggle after that. The girl was (rightly) convinced that she was causing the attacks that were happening to people all over the castle. Kathryn thought, for a second, that she had placated the fellow redhead with her words, only to be caught off guard as Ginny violently grabbed the diary and chucked it into Moaning Myrtle's toilet.

"I hate you, Ginny Weasley and I will never forgive you!"

12.

Kathryn and May giggled as they watched a disgruntled gnome struggle with her brother as it tried to deliver the musical valentine they'd sent to him. She missed Tom, a lot, but at the same time it was nice to have more time to have fun with May, whom she'd missed. This was just the sort of thing the two of them liked to do together. They'd stayed up all night writing to most horrifying valentine poem to send to Harry, but watching it happen before her eyes just took the cake. It was incredibly difficult not to completely bust up with laughter- it was especially funny when Harry's bag ripped and all his things tumbled onto the floor. There was no one better to pick on and terrorize than your own sibling, clearly!

But that was when something familiar caught her eye. A little black book which she knew to be the diary of one Tom Marvolo Riddle had dropped to the floor along with everything else he was carrying. Kathryn froze and the diary was all she could focus on. Even after Harry had scooped up all of his things, she felt distracted.

His eyes are as green as a fresh-pickled toad,  
His hair is as dark as a blackboard.  
I wish he was mine, he's really divine,  
the hero who conquered the Dark Lord.

Malfoy stumbling upon him and hearing the embarrassing poem her and May wrote the night before and making fun of both Harry and Ginny at once couldn't even bring her back into focus. She needed to get that diary back; she needed to finish what she and Tom had started. Ugh, and then Malfoy got his grimy paws all over it. If her brother hadn't beaten her to it, Kathryn would have tried to disarm the git herself. She watched Ginny rush into class, face covered, and knew that she was going to make that stupid little Gryffindor get Tom back if it was the last thing she did.

"I think your brother's got a not-so-secret admirer," Malfoy sniggered as she walked past him to be late for class. At any other time, she might have laughed with him, but instead she fixed him with a glare that could raise the dead.

"Give it up, Malfoy. We all know you secretly idolise him," she sneered, and turned to walk away in the opposite direction, ignoring his loud protests.

13.

The same day as the Valentine, she'd cornered Ginny and told her that if they didn't get Tom back, Harry would learn all her embarrassing little secrets. That and Kathryn would spend the rest of their next six years at Hogwarts making Ginny's life an absolute hell. She could tell that Ginny was already nervous and scared, and her words had struck a nerve. Which was how, a few days later, Kathryn finally had the diary back between her fingers. She was finally going to see the resolution of her and Tom's plan. That very night there was another attack.

Kathryn usually didn't go with Tom when he...well, _you know'd_ with Ginny's body (it was a bit weird), but she'd been so giddy to have Tom back that she didn't care if he was in Ginny's body. He could have been in her Aunt Petunia's body and she would have followed him until the ends of the earth.

What was it about Tom that inspired such devotion in Kathryn Potter? It wasn't as though she'd never had friends or anything like that, so what was so special about Tom Riddle? She hadn't always hated her brother so much. He used to be her favorite person, along with May and Marianne; growing up with the Dursleys, Harry had always been there. But something changed between them after he got his Hogwarts letter and left her. He hadn't even come home to see her for Christmas, he was having such a great time with his new life at Hogwarts, and that had hurt.

And then she got to Hogwarts and it had all gotten worse. Suddenly, it seemed, he wasn't just her older brother Harry anymore, he was HARRY POTTER: BOY-WHO-LIVED. Because of it, because of him, people looked at her differently. They whispered about her, just like they whispered about Harry; people didn't like her because they didn't like her brother. Harry made her life complicated and now she couldn't just be herself anymore.

The 15th of May would mark her twelfth birthday and when it came down to it, Kathryn was still just a girl whose parents were murdered, whose aunt and uncle didn't like her, and whose brother was famous. Tom Riddle was an impossibly perfect boy who understood her, who took her side, who wanted to be her friend. And somehow that made all the difference.

14.

_their skeletons will lie in the chamber forever_

The words dripped from the wall as Kathryn watched Tom-Ginny write them carefully and with a smile that seemed out of place on the Gryffindor girl's face. It was almost time for everything to come together and Kathryn could barely contain her excitement. Tom Riddle would be real, flesh and blood, and she could finally stop having to spend time with Ginny Weasley. Needless to say, she was in the best mood anybody had seen her in since she started Hogwarts. The night ahead was going to be everything she'd waited for all term.

"My chamber won't really lie in the Chamber forever, right?" she asked, somewhat nervous.

"Of course not, Kathryn," Tom-Ginny's voice said. "I have much greater plans for you and I."

That made Kathryn beam at him. He had _plans_ for her and him. She didn't know what they were, but it didn't matter. Impossibly perfect Tom Riddle had special plans just for her - plans that didn't involve her brother and marked her as more special than Ginny or anyone else - and that was enough. It was enough to get her to follow him down the tunnel and into none other than the Chamber of Secrets, where she'd so desperately wanted him to take her for so long.

She just didn't expect her brother to come and rescue her.

"Tom - Tom Riddle? Wait, Kathryn?!" Harry asked, surprised to see her and Tom standing together as he knelt beside Ginny Weasley's barely-breathing body. Kathryn was too upset with Harry for, once again, ruining everything to even listen to the exchange between him and Tom. He just couldn't resist putting his nose where it didn't belong, could he? Merlin, her brother was so thick. Not only couldn't he keep from minding his own business but he just didn't get it. Couldn't put any of the pieces of the puzzle together even when they were laying right in front of him.

"What d'you mean I won't be-?"

"I've waited a long time for this, Harry Potter. For the chance to see you. To speak to you."

"How did Ginny get like this?" Harry asked slowly.

"Well that's an interesting question," Tom drawled, as if he were answering a question about if blue and yellow made green. "And quite a long story. I suppose the real reason Ginny Weasley's like this is standing right next to me. It's all thanks to your sister that Ginny spilled her secrets to a stranger, to my diary, and that this came to pass."

"Kathy, what is he saying? What did you do?" Harry asked, and his turned to her like a hawk and immediately Kathryn felt nauseated.

"You know she hates it when you call her Kathy," Tom answered for her, voice smooth like silk. "I would know. All year I've been listening to her the way you never have. Isn't that right, Kathryn?"

"Yes, it is right," she said, suddenly able to find her voice, although it was a bit shaky. "Tom cares about me. He understands me. Don't you see?"

The look on Harry's face was a mix of horror and "no, I do not see." Tom smiled, an almost oily kind of smile, and wrapped his nearly-corporeal arm around Kathryn's shoulders. She didn't see the look of delight that passed his features in reaction to the one of hatred that was on Harry's.

"Get your hands off my sister, Tom," he said, calmer than he looked.

"No, I don't think I will. She likes it this way. You should respect her decisions," he continued. "That's how this all happened. Because I was patient, sympathetic, and kind as I listened to two eleven year-old girls tell me their troubles. Kathryn confided in me and when I told her there was a way for us to be more than...pen pals, as it were, she jumped at the chance and provided me with dear Ginny. Poor little Ginny, with her hand me down clothes and fears that the heroic Harry Potter would never like her, poured out her soul to me on paper, not realizing that the more she did, the more powerful I grew. Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her..."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, and Kathryn knew her brother well enough to tell when he was nervous.

"Ginny opened the Chamber, Harry," she piped in, impatient. "She strangled the roosters, wrote the messages on the walls. She's the one who set Slytherin's snake on the school. Tom...just helped her."

"She didn't know what she was doing at first, of course. Her diary entries were very amusing. And it took such a long time for silly little Ginny to stop trusting her diary," Tom continued, and Kathryn thought he might have tried to pat her on the back, but it was hard to tell. "Her and Kathryn got in a terrible row and Ginny tried to dispose of it. Ah, but that was where you came in. How convenient, that you of all people found me when that's exactly where I was trying to end up."

"Why me? And what about Kathryn?" Harry asked, voice wavering, though out of fear or anger, Kathryn couldn't tell. She knew Tom's answer to that question, of course. He'd explained it all to her himself before stupid Ginny threw the diary into Moaning Myrtle's toilet.

"Ah, my dear Kathryn. She was the first one to find my diary and write to me, and she wrote to me about you. Her aggravating, life-ruining older brother who, as an infant, defeated the Dark Lord. And so, over the past months, you've become my new target. Killing mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore," Tom explained. "So I made Ginny write her own farewell on the wall and bring Kathryn down as well. I knew you'd come for them from what they told me about you. I have many questions for you, Harry Potter. And Kathryn, well, she's a very special part of my plan. A real personal touch, I think."

This was it, Kathryn thought. This was when Tom was going to stand up for her, make things right for her. But instead...he asked about how Harry managed to escape with nothing but his scar the night he'd vanquished You-Know-Who. Biting her lip, Kathryn turned to look at Tom, but he wasn't looking at her; his eyes were trained on her brother and nothing else.

"Why do you care how I escaped? Voldemort was after your time..." her brother said slowly, eyeing Tom strangely. Kathryn just felt confused.

"Voldemort," Tom said softly. "Is my past, present, and future."

Kathryn watched, eyes wide, as Tom used her brother's wand to rearrange the letters of his name. I am Lord Voldemort. Wait, she thought...that couldn't be right. This was her Tom, after all. Not Lord Voldemort, the man who murdered her parents twelve years ago. ...Right? But the more he continued to talk, about his filthy muggle mother... it made her blood run cold. All of a sudden, Kathryn felt very, very dizzy. Everything was spinning. What did Tom mean he'd been waiting a long time for Harry? He had plans for her, Kathryn Potter, not her brother. He was on her side, wasn't he? She felt the panic rise but remained rooted to the ground.

What had she done?

And then her brother had to go and tell him Dumbledore was the greatest sorcerer in the world. Oh great, she thought; I am standing next a sixteen year-old version of the Dark Lord and Harry decides to antagonize him! What a Gryffindor. In the moment of distraction by the arrival of Dumbledore's phoenix, Kathryn attempted to free herself from the arm that had gone from casually slung around her shoulder to gripping it. When had his form gotten so solid? She told herself to stay calm and to not hyperventilate, even when the phoenix dropped the sorting hat on Harry. The Sorting Hat! Of all the useless things!

"Look, Kathryn, at what Dumbledore sends his defender! A songbird and an old hat!" Tom addressed her, laughing, and a look that might have made her happy now made her scared. "So down to business, Harry? Twice in my future and your past I have failed to kill you. How? The longer you talk, the longer your sister stays alive."

That's when Kathryn realized exactly what an idiot she'd been. How stupid to even think this was ever actually about her and not about Harry! In the world of magic, it was always going to be about Harry. She'd been so caught up in herself...and she'd ended up working to bring Voldemort back to life of all the people...she deserved Sister of the Year Award for sure. But right then, her brother was being just as big an idiot as Kathryn had been. Only he would have the guts/stupidity to tell the Dark Lord to his sixteen year-old face that he turned into something foul, ugly, and weak; to assert the fact that their muggle-born mother was the source of whatever had kept him alive. It was like Harry wanted her to die.

"Harry, shut up!" Kathryn exclaimed, and both boys looked at her sharply. "You survived out of sheer, dumb luck and we both know it. Don't make things up just because you're angry."

The look on Harry's face was a mixture of betrayal and disbelief, but the look on Tom's face was approving. More than anything, Kathryn wanted to try and make it out of the situation alive, and insulting Tom/Voldemort was not the way to do that. If possible, she also wanted to get her brother out of there, and ugh, yes, Ginny Weasley as well. But to do that the diary had to be destroyed somehow.

"Your sister is much smarter than you, Harry," Tom intoned, still gripping her arm. "You know, I think I might keep her after all this is over, which it will be very soon, don't worry. I'm going to teach you a lesson - let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against Harry Potter, Dumbledore's little pet. What do you think, Kathryn?"

"My brother had better hope he gets lucky again," she said, feeling totally out of control of her mouth and totally in control of it at the same time. Kathryn, she told herself, You are just acting. This is not you. She only hoped her brother could see that, or he might never forgive her.

15.

At the moment when Kathryn saw the snake's fang sink into Harry's arm, her heart dropped to her stomach and she tried desperately to wrench herself from Tom's grip. He watched her struggle against him, amused, but held her tighter. She watched her brother pull the loosened fang out of his arm and slowly sink to the floor, and pulled harder.

"This isn't what I wanted," she said weakly.

"No, but it's what I wanted," Tom replied, confident and smug. "Don't worry Kathryn, there's nothing you can do for him."

"What are you going to do with me?" Kathryn asked in response, sounding as small as she felt.

"Personally, the sweetest revenge isn't Harry Potter's death. It's his little sister next to me as I rise to power again," he explained. "But it's up to you whether you die here or not."

Kathryn didn't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that he meant she could tell him she was still willing to follow him to the ends of the earth, no matter who got in the way...or she could die here with Harry. Neither seemed to be a very good option. But what else could she do?

"Just...just let me go to him. I don't care if everyone else in the world thinks he died with me hating him, but..." she pleaded with him, even if puppy-dog eyes were probably the last thing anyone would try and use on the boy who became Lord Voldemort. "I'll do whatever you want, just...please, Tom. _Please_."

For a moment, he eyed her, as if deciding whether or not he had a good enough hold on her, she guessed. But what did it matter if Harry was near dead? Every second she had to wait for him to give her the go-ahead was another one wasted. Without saying a word, his hand slipped down so it was loosely holding her hand and he led her her brother's side. Tom let go of her and decided that while she cried and choked out "I'm sorry's" he would taunt Harry. Dumbledore's stupid phoenix was in the way though, crying all over him as if it were the idiot sister.

"You're dead, Harry Potter," Tom's voice echoed victoriously throughout the chamber. "The bird knows it, even your sister knows it. How does it feel to know she did this to you?"

Something inside Kathryn Potter snapped.

"No I didn't!" she protested angrily. "You did! Your snake did! Not me!"

"Now, now, Kathryn," Tom tisked. "Take credit for what you've done. None of this would have been possible without you."

She was so blinded by how furious she felt that Kathryn didn't even notice her brother's wound beginning to close or the way he was able to begin to move a little bit. The only thing she could see was Tom - no, _Lord Voldemort_. And suddenly, the phoenix had dropped something in her brother's lap and the world clicked into place. A gear switched on and she became aware of the diary and the basilisk fang next to each other and within arm's reach. The world seemed to be moving in slow motion as she reached out, grabbed the fang, and raised it over the diary before either of the boys could even blink.

"Kathryn, what are you doing, you silly girl? Put that down-"

"No! You don't own me, Tom Riddle!"

With those final words, faster than Tom could draw her brother's wand, Kathryn slammed the fang straight through the heart of the book. There was a long, dreadful and piercing scream. For a moment she wasn't sure if it had come from her or the figure that was now writing as ink spurted out of the diary and all over her and Harry. And then, as if he had never been there, Tom Riddle was...gone. She couldn't help it and started to cry. No, outright sob. She'd killed Ginny Weasley, killed her brother, killed Tom. They'd never let her come back to Hogwarts and she wasn't sure what was worse, prison or living with the Dursleys the rest of her life. She cried so hard that she couldn't hear the faint moan coming from Ginny or the sound of her brother's rustling.

"Kathy, it's going to be alright," she heard her brother's soft and soothing voice fill her ears, and it, as always, had the ability to calm her gulping breaths and ease her tears. "Fawkes healed me, Ginny seems like she's about to wake up. We're gonna get out of here, okay? It's going to be alright."

16.

Kathryn stood awkwardly in the doorway of the Headmaster's office, arms crossed against her chest and head dropped as Mrs. Weasley and her daughter were reunited, hugging her brother, Ron, and Ginny to her chest.

"You saved her. You saved her! How did you do it?" the shrill voice of the mother of seven was unmistakable and hurt Kathryn's ears.

"I think we'd all like to know that," added Professor McGonnagall.

She listened, still as a rock, as her brother recounted how he'd been hearing the voice of the basilisk the whole time. About giant spiders in the forest and that disastrous blue Ford Anglia and Moaning Myrtle. When McGonnagall probed further, she saw her brother hesitate and she felt terrified. So far he hadn't said anything about the diary, Kathryn, or Ginny.

"What interests me most," said the voice of Dumbledore, previously so quiet. "Is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant these two girls when my sources tell me he is currently hiding in the forests of Albania."

Kathryn's eyes flicked to Harry, as he held up the torn and bruised diary that had previously been her most prized possession. She felt like she was watching outside of her body while Dumbledore gently explained that Tom Riddle was the most brilliant student ever to attend Hogwarts. But then came the question she was dreading. What did Ginny, wondered Mrs. Weasley, have to do with any of it? And here was where she had to speak up or let everyone else try and tell the story for her.

"I found it in my things at the beginning of the year," Kathryn said, speaking for the first time since she'd driven the fang through the diary. "I started writing in it and it wrote back. I-it asked me-I showed it to Ginny. We started sharing it."

"Ginny!" exclaimed Mr. Weasley, flabbergasted. "Kathryn didn't know better, but you did. How many times have I told you to never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain! Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"I told her not to tell anyone. It was supposed to be our secret, something special just for the two of us," Kathryn explained.

"I didn't know!" cried Ginny, and Kathryn felt a desire rise in her to stuff a sock in the other's girl's mouth.

"Miss Weasley and Miss Potter should go up to the hospital wing right away," Dumbledore insisted. "This has clearly been a traumatic experience for them both, and there will be no punishment for either of them. Bed rest and perhaps a large mug of hot chocolate, perhaps. I always find that cheers me up."

A mug of hot chocolate, really? Ginny's mouth wasn't the only one she wanted to put a sock in. Which was how how Kathryn found herself being taken to the hospital wing, flanked by Weasleys, and praying her brother didn't tell Dumbledore what really happened. She wished she could make him forget the whole thing. But she was glad that she didn't have to attend the feast that night; Kathryn didn't know how she would face her brother ever again. She also didn't want to listen to Draco Malfoy's obnoxious rambling about the Chamber of Secrets, which she was sure he'd bombard her with. A few days of peace would be appreciated.

17.

It wasn't until they were back at the Durlseys that Harry really spoke to her. He'd come to see her and Ginny in the Hospital Wing for the few days they were there, but Kathryn hadn't known what to say. On the one hand it was nice because her and Ginny did not so much as look at each other, forget talk to one another, but...the way he looked at her made her squirm.

"Hey Kathy," her brother greeted her, sitting on the edge of her bed in their shared room full of Dudley's clutter.

"Yeah?" she asked, distracted.

"I need to talk to you about Riddle," he said slowly, knowing he was breaching what she wished to be a forbidden topic.

"Harry, I don't really want to talk about him-"

"The way he talked to you and about you...He didn't possess you like he did Ginny, did he?"

At that, her mouth slammed shut and her whole body stiffened. No, she definitely did not want to talk about it. She fidgeted and squirmed, betraying just how nervous and uncomfortable she was. Harry, knowing his sister well enough, took her silence as an answer.

"Why? Do you hate me so much or something? I know you were mad when I left for Hogwarts but...I don't get it," he admitted, schootching so that he was sitting closer to her.

"That's the problem!" she exclaimed suddenly, after a few minutes of awkward silence. "Yes I was mad at you for leaving me, but that's not it. That would be a dumb thing to hold a grudge about for that long. Everything's always got to be about you! From like the first second I stepped onto the train to Hogwarts, everybody is always measuring me against you. My house hates me because I'm your sister. Don't you get it?"

But no, he didn't get it. She hadn't expected him to.

"I was stupid, alright? I was stupid and silly and he knew it and I _believed_ him. There, I admit it! Are we done?"

He gaped at her like a fish. She promptly got up and stormed out of the room. _Forget this_, she thought. _I'm going to May's_. If there was one person in the world who was always going to be on her side, it was May Journey. And Kathryn had a lot of making up to do because over the past year she'd forgotten.

* * *

The Prisoner of Azkaban chapter is started but who knows when I will finish it. Hopefully soon? Fingers crossed, yo.


	4. not in dog years

**RIOT GRRRL MANIFESTO**

summary: Kathryn only wanted a couple of things out of life: to get away from the Dursleys, to do something memorable, to graduate...but more than anything? She just really wanted to be something other than 'Harry Potter's little sister.' These are her adventures. AU.

disclaimer: I'm really JKR in disguise as shitty, 20-something fanfic writer. brilliant plan, right? Some of the dialogue towards the end is taken directly from POA, just like some of the text at the end of the last chapter was taken directly from COS.

This chapter is centered around the events of The Prisoner of Azkaban. Warning, though: I do a seriously AU thing.

OH AND HEY: if you catch any mistakes, don't hesitate to drop me a review or message about it. Anything from a really annoying inconsistency to a bothersome spelling mistake. I don't have a beta reader & I'm not always that great at proofreading my own work, though I do try. If you let me know, I'll do my best to fix whatever it is!

* * *

_**three: not in dog years**_

1.

"I want you to cut my hair," Kathryn declared to Marianne when the older girl walked into the living room. "And do something outrageous with the color."

Marianne eyed Kathryn and her suspiciously. Obviously hair grew back, but she couldn't believe that Kathryn really wanted to chop and color her gorgeous just-past-the-shoulders auburn curls. What Marianne wouldn't do to have natural hair like that! But the look in the twelve year-olds eyes meant there was no mistaking that determination. This was something that Kathryn would do herself if Marianne did not. Petunia Dursley was going to kill her. Sighing, Marianne took her wand out of her back pocket and with a wave, Kathryn's perfect loose curls were cut. Her hair hung just below her chin and had only a slight wave. Another flick and it was perfectly straight. A third tap, and the one-auburn locks were now a vibrant, mermaid blue. Hopefully, thought Marianne, it would be a phase.

A quick glance in the mirror and Kathryn's face was a bright, gleaming smile. If Marianne had to guess by the slightest look of mischief in the younger girl's eyes, there was more to the change than just preteen whatever and the desire for change itself. There was rebellion there, which didn't surprise the older woman. Well, as long as she didn't have to be in the neighborhood when Petunia saw it...

2.

"KATHRYN ELIZABETH POTTER!"

Aunt Petunia's voice, usually much more controlled, could probably have been heard all the way in China and other countries halfway across the world. Kathryn cringed, even though she'd been expecting this sort of reaction.

"You did this on purpose!" her aunt accused. "You knew your aunt Marge was coming tomorrow and that's why you've ruined your hair!"

Ah, spot on! At least Aunt Petunia wasn't stupid. She was right - Kathryn overheard her aunt and uncle discussing her dreadful "aunt" Marge's upcoming visit last week. It was always interesting to see what new way the woman would terrorize Harry whenever she came, but it had been a long time since she'd come. Well, not that long. The year before Harry's Hogwarts letter came, so three years? It was also the year Harry stepped on Ripper's tail and got chased up a tree. Good memories. Luckily, Aunt Marge had always seemed kind of, well, amused by Kathryn.

The next morning, Kathryn walked down the stairs to hear Uncle Vernon and Harry arguing. Curious, she plopped down on the couch next to Dudley. Her cousin was a troll, yes, but they did have one thing in common: they both enjoyed watching Harry get into trouble. For Dudley, it was probably just sick amusement, but for Kathryn it was a reminder that she herself was not the one in trouble for once.

"Thirdly," began Uncle Vernon. "We've told Marge you attend St. Brutus' Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys."

"WHAT?" Harry yelled while Dudley and Kathryn sniggered. "Where does Kathryn go, then? She's the one with the blue hair!"

She could only glare at her brother for bringing attention onto her. Birthday boy or not she was going to kick him later. Really hard and in the shins. Besides, she'd already done her sisterly duty and given him a card. Then Uncle Vernon turned to her, eyes narrowed. It was a generally accepted fact that disciplining Kathryn was her aunt's job, for whatever reason, so she simply smiled at him.

"Don't get cheeky with me, girl," he warned. "No funny business from you, either."

Her uncle had to head off to the train station after that, and she merely threw the same smile at Harry that she had at Uncle Vernon.

"Aunt Marge visiting you for your birthday? What a great present!" she whispered in his ear as she passed him on her way back to the stairs. Time to get dressed and ready for the one and only Aunt Marge...

3.

Thankfully, it hadn't gone as bad as Kathryn suspected. At least, not for her. Aunt Marge had taken one look at her and then turned to Aunt Petunia as if she were invisible or something and asked "Oh, she's still rebellious, is she? Better discipline her, Petunia, or she'll end up like her brother." And that was that. Well, of course, Aunt Marge loved to criticize Harry and their parents, but she seemed to love picking on Harry far more than on Kathryn. She'd learned a long time ago that her comments did not goad Kathryn they way they did her brother. Harry hated Aunt Marge and let everything she said get to him, which was rather stupid of him really.

But this year he seemed to be trying. He'd almost turned as purple as Uncle Vernon when the large woman had been going on about breeding and blah blah (as if Kathryn was actually listening) when he'd suddenly made Aunt Marge's glass explode. Before he could stealthily sneak out into the hallway, she mouthed an "uh oh! someone's in trouble!" in his direction. He only glared.

It was all fun and games until Aunt Marge's final night, at least. First of all, Aunt Marge had gotten pretty tipsy on the wine and Harry was brooding as usual while they all ate dessert. Kathryn played with her pie absently, taking her sweet time and keeping herself busy.

"You have to eat, girl," Aunt Marge slurred. "You're nothing but skin and bones! Isn't she?"

Kathryn sighed and shoved a piece of pie in her mouth as if to say "clearly, I am eating!" And she was only skin and bones compared to the Dursley side of the family. Dudley, Uncle Vernon, and Aunt Marge all were big as houses.

"She gets it from my side of the family, Marge," Aunt Petunia said, which surprised Kathryn. "I looked very skinny like her when I was a girl."

"Yes, well, maybe there's still hope for her yet, but with that hair, I doubt it. Now, this one here, on the other hand-" she said, jabbing a finger in Harry's direction. "He's got a right rutty look about him. Mean, like you get with dogs. Had to put one like him down last year, you know. Weak and underbred."

That was when Kathryn started to completely tune her aunt out. Eat a forkful of pie, take a drink, run through conversations she wanted to have with May, et cetera. And when it came down to it, she really didn't care what the old lard thought about her parents. Boo hoo, Aunt Marge thought her father was a "wastrel" and her mother was a "bad egg." Excuse me while I cry myself to sleep. Clearly, Harry was not as smart as her. Unfortunately.

"My dad was not unemployed!" Harry asserted suddenly. Kathryn rolled her eyes. Uncle Vernon shouted for more brandy. Dudley looked like the circus had come to town early this year. Aunt Marge...thought it was funny.

"They didn't die in a car crash!" he protested further, getting to his feet, and Aunt Marge went from amused to furious, and started to rant about how ungrateful Harry was and at least Kathryn could keep her smart mouth shut out of respect for her hard working relatives (that part made Kathryn snort. If only Aunt Marge knew...). But then the strangest thing started to happen. Her face, red from the alcohol and her temper, started to swell up past its normal size and her eyes bulged out of her head. Her buttons started to pop off her jacket as the rest of her followed suit and she started blowing up like a bonafide balloon. When she started floating, Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia began to panic and Harry bolted out of the room. Her uncle grabbed her by the arm and tried to drag her over to Aunt Marge, demanding that she fix him.

"I don't know how! Harry's the one who did it!"

"COME BACK HERE! COME BACK IN HERE AND PUT HER RIGHT!"

Uncle Vernon's voice was louder than she'd ever heard it and didn't stop until the Ministry came. But Harry did not come back. That little punk.

4.

Kathryn sat at the kitchen table at the Journey's house a few days later; she'd been avoiding the Dursleys as much as possible since the "Marge Incident." Harry sent her an owl saying he was staying at the Leaky Cauldron if she wanted to visit - hah. She remembered last summer quite well and so far he had a knack for mucking up her holidays. She'd rather stay with May and Marianne.

"Did you see the latest article in the Prophet about Sirius Black?" asked May, who just bounded into the kitchen with painful enthusiasm.

"Black? You mean that escaped convict who was on the telly? Why's he in the Daily Prophet?"

At Kathryn's confusing, May turned to look at her like she'd grown some sort of third or fourth eyeball. It was a look that clearly said "are you daft?" But for the life of her, Kathryn didn't know why she should know about some weirdo escapee or why they'd be writing about him in the Daily Prophet.

"You mean you don't know about Sirius Black? Harry didn't tell you?" she asked in a rush. "Or does he not know either?"

"May, slow down, I don't know what you're talking about at all!"

And that was when May Journey had to sit her best friend down and give her terrible news. Marianne had been muttering about it when Black escaped, how terrible it was going to be for Harry and Kathryn. So they went to the couch and she gently explained that Sirius Black, mass murderer, was commonly known as the man who betrayed Lily and James Potter to Voldemort. May just kept apologizing, saying she didn't know that Kathryn didn't know or she'd have told her sooner and sorry, sorry - but it all bounced off of Kathryn. The crazy man running loose was the man who had effectively signed off on her parents' death certificates. She didn't really know how to process that.

"It's okay, May. It's not your fault," she responded, sounding detached. Kathryn went back to normal, of course, but felt acutely aware of how much there was that she plain didn't know. And how unfair that was. No one ever told her that her parents had been betrayed by their best friend, never said anything about Voldemort not being the only killer. Which, okay, wasn't something ten year-olds needed to know. But honestly, she was twelve now. Twelve! And the killer was on the loose! Didn't that mean anything? Maybe it made her paranoid, but at least she could be vigilant instead of ignorant.

If she knew the odd black dog she'd noticed lurking around the neighborhood was said killer, Kathryn Potter would never have left her house again.

5.

It would figure that the first person May and Kathryn ran into at King's Cross wouldn't be Harry or the Weasleys, but Draco Malfoy. Kathryn thought he was a complete slimeball.

"Well if it isn't the baby Potter," sneered Draco as they walked past him. He was standing not far from his parents and if they had been further away Kathryn might have been more tempted to punch him in the gut. He then added, sarcastically: "The hideous blue hair really suits you."

"Hello to you too, Malfoy," she deadpanned before rolling her eyes, deciding not to even acknowledge his comment about her hair. He came closer to them, one of those annoying smirks on his face, and May muttered an "oh great" under her breath that only Kathryn could hear.

"I heard your brother pulled up in Ministry cars to the station today," he drawled. "My father says Black is after your brother. Muttered in his sleep about him at Azkaban. Guess you're not worth the effort, eh?"

It took pretty much every ounce of self-control in her not to just punch him in the face. Actually, every day near him was an effort not to commit homicide. But this was a special circumstance - why was she always hearing everything second hand? And the last person she wanted to learn anything from was Draco fucking Malfoy. Kathryn tried to remain as calm and unfazed as possible. She couldn't, after all, give him the satisfaction of knowing she didn't know those things.

"Yes, well, I'm not the one who killed his master, now am I?" she asked flippantly, looking unamused.

"All the same, I'd watch my back if I were you. Any madman smart enough to escape Azkaban would be smart enough to think of using you to get to your brother," he said darkly, before heading off with his nose in the air.

"Ignore him," May told her as he walked off. "It's just Malfoy."

"Yeah," Kathryn said quietly. "But as much as I hate to admit it, he's got a point."

6.

After several hours on the train, as the rain fell steadily and made the sky dark, it began to slow and came to a jerky stop. Kathryn and May were startled when May's trunk fell off the overhead rack and hit the ground with a thud, coming open as it landed between them. As they leaned forward to start putting everything back inside with a strange look on their faces, the cabin lights flickered and went out completely.

"What the bloody hell is happening?" May asked, and it was only because of how close her voice sounded that Kathryn could tell her friend was still in front of her. It was pitch black, and they could hear people stumbling about outside, asking the same question May had just posed. As the two girls struggled to their feet and felt their way to the door, it suddenly slid open.

"Who's there?" Kathryn asked, trying not to sound shaky, but the only answer was a long, rattling breath and an intense, bone-chilling cold swept over her. She felt her entire body start to shake and the worst of feelings came over her as she grappled for the doorframe, May, something, anything to grab onto to support herself. It was like every bad feeling, every bad moment, every awful memory was attacking her at once and it became difficult to breathe. Kathryn would have passed out if the thing, whatever it was that was causing the feeling to come over her, hadn't moved along.

"What was that?" her voice cracked as she spoke.

"I-I think it was a Dementor..." May answered, her voice not much better.

Kathryn hoped she never came into contact with one ever again.

7.

"My father's put in an official complaint with school's governors - I can't wait to see the look on Potter's face when his pal Hagrid is out of a job!"

Kathryn had the unfortunate luck of having to share the same breathing space as Malfoy every bleeding day. Usually she was able to tune it out when he wasn't speaking specifically to her, but it was hard not to overhear his incessant, loud bragging about getting Hagrid sacked and his melodramatic story about being attacked by a hippogriff. It didn't help that she kept catching him looking at her out of the corner of his eye, sneaking triumphant glances, as if she was the one who hung out with the gatekeeper on a regular basis, not her brother.

She couldn't take his arrogance for one more second, and with a loud thud, slammed shut the book she'd been reading while sitting on one of the couches in the common room. Unceremoniously, she left the room before she lost her it just that boring being rich and pureblood that he had to come up with new and interesting ways to entertain himself? And why was it so often at her expense? Truly, she wanted to wring his little neck. Which he would probably enjoy, because it meant he'd gotten to her.

Taking a breather sounded like a reasonable and smart alternative, and so she found herself wandering from the dungeons and upwards. Kathryn was walking through a corridor (she'd lost track of where exactly she was) when she nearly ran smack into the new Defense professor, Professor Lupin. She'd already had a class with him and he seemed like a decent enough teacher, certainly better than Lockhart had been.

"Oh, er, hello Professor," she greeted him, a bit surprised. He, on the other hand, looked a bit startled by her presence.

"Kathryn," he replied, and she thought it was strange that he had a habit of referring to all his students by their first name. "What are you doing hereabouts? Not causing any mischief, I hope,"

"Oh, no sir," she said, smiling a little. "Just taking a walk."

That was pretty much the end of their exchange, though it wouldn't be the last one they had outside of class. She discovered she quite liked his company and would sometimes stop by his office. Kathryn sometimes noticed the looks Professor Snape (her favourite professor) would shoot at the man, but never gave it much thought, all things considered.

8.

The story of how Sirius Black had slashed the Fat Lady's portrait trying to get into the Gryffindor common room spread like wildfire across the Hogwarts as they all stood in the Great Hall after Dumbledore left with the other professors to search the grounds. Percy Weasley, mister obnoxious Head Boy, was relegating everyone to their sleeping bags when Harry came up to Kathryn and pulled her aside.

"Are you okay?" he asked hurriedly, looking a little worried; in turn she rolled her eyes.

"It was your common room he tried to break into, not mine," Kathryn pointed out.

"You know he's dangerous, don't you Kathy? And that he's likely going to try and hurt one of us? Just let me know you'll be careful, okay?" Harry pleaded, and his desperation made her sigh.

"Fine, yes, I'll be careful. Now go find your friends and your sleeping bag before Percy or someone else comes over here and we get in trouble."

With one last worried look, he walked off towards Ron and Hermione and Kathryn headed back to May, trying to ignore the furtive whispers and gossip coming from everyone around her. Maybe Black disguised himself, or managed to get past the apparition wards, or maybe he flew in! It was easy for them to find the drama exciting, but not so much for Kathryn. By all appearances, Black was trying to break in and probably kill her brother, which was scary enough, but she could hear Draco's words from the train station echo in her head - any mad man smart enough to break out of Azkaban was smart enough to realise hurting Kathryn was a way to get to her brother. What if her common room was next? What if she was next?

The thought kept her up all night.

9.

May invited Kathryn to come spend Christmas with her at an aunt's house, which was infinitely better than spending it at Hogwarts. Also, she loved May's family - they were the most interesting people, at least on the small occasions she'd spent with them in the past. And now that she knew they were magical, a lot of their eccentricities made sense...like how her Aunt Ursula thought the telly was the most interesting thing May and Marianne owned, for example.

May's parents were always off travelling and doing exciting things, which was why Marianne took care of her younger sister. Since Kathryn's acceptance letter to Hogwarts, she'd learned the family was pureblood, but as May said quite proudly, they were blood traitors for the most part. It was weird to think she was related to half the kids in Slytherin house, like Terrence Higgs, who had graduated the year before and was her cousin (the not-so-blood-traitor line of the family with that particular aunt and uncle on her mum's side, as May explained).

"Oh Kathryn, how delightful of you to join us for the holidays!" Ursula Higgs said excitedly, greeting Kathryn with enthusiasm.

"Hey Ursula," she greeted. "Oh, and Harold."

Harold Higgs was May's uncle, who bombarded her with questions he'd always apparently been burning to ask her - what was it like growing up a muggle? How did she find Hogwarts? What did Harry do over the holidays?

"Harold!" scolded Ursula. "I'm sure she doesn't want to talk about her brother right now! Let the girls get settled in their room and stop badgering the poor girl!"

Ursula was right, Kathryn hardly wanted to talk about Harry, even though she knew questions would inevitably come up, he being who he was and all. But she wanted her holidays to be blissfully Harry free, thank you!

10.

When Kathryn returned to Hogwarts after the New Year, she couldn't believe it when she heard someone talking about her brother's _new Firebolt_. A Firebolt?! How had he gotten one of those for Christmas? Life really was unfair. She did suppose he needed a new broom, considering his last one had been scrapped after that debacle on the pitch with the Dementors and all.

But quickly she realised she had bigger fish to fry. Professor Snape had insisted that she do an extra Potions project because she "wasn't being properly challenged" in class. Okay, yes, he was right. Kathryn had discovered early on that she had quite the knack for Potions and was leagues ahead of everyone in her year in the subject. She was hardly Hermione Granger, being pretty much average in all the others, but there was no use in being humble - she had Potions talent and Professor Snape had made it his personal mission to make sure it wasn't going to waste. It made her feel special and smart, which was great because honestly, she didn't usually feel that way, but at the same time...well, sometimes she just wanted to explode all the cauldrons she could to piss him off. Which is what she did one day in their extra session.

"Kathryn," he said sternly, using her first name as he had tended to do recently. "Do you enjoy being difficult simply for the fun of it?"

She had expected him to call her a dunderhead, maybe to tell her to get out of his sight. Anything but the comment he chose instead. Kathryn frowned, thinking about it for a moment. Yes, yes she did. If Hogwarts had a school counselor like the one whose office she'd sat in on more than one occasion prior to her acceptance letter, they probably would have said she was an attention seeker who didn't care if said attention was negative or positive. But Kathryn Potter never enjoyed being lectured about herself and her own feelings, so she was glad they didn't.

"Being difficult is the spice of life, Professor," she quipped cheerfully.

As he looked at her, unamused but amused at the same time, Kathryn couldn't helpt but wonder why on earth he put up with her.

Oh, the things she didn't know.

11.

The whole thing about Sirius Black breaking into the Gryffindor common room, winding up at the wrong bed, and standing over Ron Weasley with a knife just didn't sit right with Kathryn. It didn't make _sense_, you know? If Black was smart enough to break out of Azkaban, then surely he had to be smart enough to notice, even in the dark, than Ron was a _ginger_, for Chrissake.

She couldn't put her finger on it, but something just wasn't right. There was some piece of the puzzle missing, something she didn't know. But then again, it seemed she was always finding out about things after everyone else, so that was hardly a surprise.

It made her feel safer, somehow. If Black had mistook Ron for Harry, then maybe he wasn't smart enough to come after her. And if there really was something else going on, then maybe she wasn't part of it at all.

Kathryn couldn't help, though, feeling like she was starting to lose her mind sometimes. She occasionally caught sight of that same, shaggy black dog she had seen over the summer, but that wasn't possible, was it? Before anybody else could see it, the dog was gone. Was she hallucinating or something? What the hell was going on?

12.

Kathryn heard through the grapevine that not only did Draco's black eye not come from an accident at Quidditch practice, but that he'd been hit in the face by none other than Hermione Granger. If it were her brother, maybe, or Ron Weasley, that would have made sense. But Granger, of all the people! Honestly, at first, she hadn't believed it - thought it was some sort of strange Gryffindor rumour. But then everyone started talking about how the same girl had stormed out of her Divination class and subsequently dropped the course all together.

Even though it was contrary to all her opinions about her brother's friend, Kathryn felt the need to say something to Hermione. So one morning, when they were all leaving the Great Hall on their way to classes and things, she ran a little to catch up with the exhausted girl, who looked a bit like a cauldron had exploded in her face - no, her entire life - recently.

"Hey, Granger!" she called out, a hand reaching for the other girl's arm.

"What?" she snapped, impatient, but looked horrified at herself for doing it.

"I just wanted to congratulate you," Kathryn said, grinning. "Didn't think you had it in you."

"Congratulate me for what?" Hermione asked, confused.

"Oh, I think we both know what for. I never figured you'd snap before me. Way to go," was her reply, and before the bewildered Hermione could say anything else, Kathryn was heading in another direction.

13.

"It's not my fault Malfoy couldn't catch the bleeding snitch! So how about you all QUIT looking at me like it is!"

Kathryn finally couldn't keep herself from shouting it in the common room. She couldn't take another scornful, accusing look from her housemates after they'd lost the Cup to Gryffindor. It was hardly her fault that her brother was an excellent seeker! And it definitely wasn't her fault that Draco Malfoy just wasn't as good as Harry when it came to miracles and pulling through at the absolute minute thanks to sheer, dumb luck.

They all looked a bit startled after her shouting. Kathryn didn't usually lose it like that, at least not in front of them - she never wanted them to know how much their dismissals and attitude bothered her. But she'd been losing sleep because of the upcoming exams, the whole Black business, and the dog she kept seeing out of the corner of her eye. Her nerves and self-control were frayed and she just couldn't do it anymore.

"Calm down there, Kathryn," May said quietly, giving her friend a concerned look. "People will start to think you've gone mental."

"Too late, I think I already have."

14.

It was after about half of her exams had finished, and Kathryn was in Professor Snape's office have a cuppa and discussing the final bits of her extra project with him when he got a particular look on his face, as if he'd just remembered something incredibly important and excused himself, saying he'd be back in fifteen minutes.

One of Kathryn's greatest vices was her curiosity. It'd always gotten her in trouble. In hindsight, she probably shouldn't have followed Professor Snape to Professor Lupin's office, and again as he hastily and distractedly made his way to the grounds. She shouldn't have watched, astounded and even more curious, as he seemingly disabled the Whomping Willow and disappeared. She shouldn't have followed him down the rabbit hole, either. She probably shouldn't have, but she did.

"What are you doing here?" He hissed angrily when he caught sight of her. "Did you follow me here?"

"Uhhhh..." was all she could mutter. "Maybe?"

"Do not mumble."

They might have continued to argue if they hadn't heard a scuttle happening in the room at the end of the cramped hallway. Apparently curiousity wasn't exclusive to Kathryn, because they both found themselves with their ears pressed to the door, listening to a collection of voices she recognised and one she didn't. There was an Invisibility Cloak that he begrudginly let her under with him and they snuck into the room - he only let her do it because she gave him no other choice. They weren't there very long, didn't hear the entire preceeding conversation, but they'd heard enough and Professor Snape waited for the perfect moment to reveal himself with his wand drawn. She stayed underneath it though, at his quiet urging.

She watched as Hermione screamed and Black left to his feet. To be completely honest with herself, Kathryn saw a side of Professor Snape that she wasn't very comfortable seeing. He was angry, and vengeful...unhinged, and maybe even a little bit irrational. It was not the Professor Snape she knew, though Kathryn was sure that it confirmed every awful thing every Gryffindor ever thought about him. It was hard for her to process everything - this side of Snape, Professor Lupin being a _werewolf_ and one of her father's best friends, him and Black appearing to be in cahoots...it made her brain hurt. So she tried to stay quiet, underneath the cloak, for as long as possible. Which was a difficult feat for Kathryn - after all, she'd never been particularly talented at holding her tongue.

There were a lot of times when she wanted to shout. Like when her brother accused Snape of being pathetic and hating him just because he'd hated their dad - but she thought that couldn't be true. After all, Kathryn and Harry had the same dad and Professor Snape hardly hated her. In fact, he'd always seemed to have a bit of a soft spot for her. But it was Snape's response that made her blood run cold and throw the cloak from over her.

"Professor!" she shouted, angry. "That's my father you're talking about, too, and if you think I can just-"

Kathryn didn't get to keep going. Instead, she was interrupted by a shout of "_Expelliarmus!__"_ from Hermione (again, of all the people!) and Professor Snape was disarmed and knocked out. The aftermath was chaotic, to say the least.

"You shouldn't have done that," Black said, looking at Harry, but Kathryn noticed him looking at her too, with curiosity. "You should have left him to me…"

"We attacked a teacher…We attacked a teacher…" Hermione was practically hyperventilating.

"Kathryn! You shouldn't be here," Professor Lupin scolded her, even though he was still bound.

"Yeah, well, it's a bit late for that and this is as much my business as anyone else's!" she replied firmly, and besides, she had more than one thing to say to him. He was a _werewolf_? And he'd been best friends with her dad and Sirius Black?! Kathryn had spent nearly the whole year feeling like she could talk to Professor Lupin and he hadn't even bothered to tell her about that? The werewolf part she could understand, and obviously it made her a bit uneasy, but come on! Her parents!

"Thank you, Harry," Lupin said as Harry united him, but Kathryn was still glaring and he was still giving her a stern look.

"I'm still not saying I believe you," Harry replied.

"Then it's time we offered you some proof. You," Lupin ordered with his professor-voice, looking at Ron. "Give me Peter, please. Now."

Ron, however, was being uncooperative, clutching Scabbers to his chest while he had begun to explain how he knew about Peter Pettigrew/Scabbers being at Hogwarts, but Kathryn was impatient. She didn't _care _about what Black saw in the Daily Prophet or Pettigrew's finger or Hermione's bloody cat - she just wanted to know and Ron was stalling.

"Oh for heaven's sake, Weasley, give it to me," Kathryn snapped, fighting to grab the thing from Ron's grip. Finally, after a short struggle, a small kick to his damaged leg allowed her to snatch the squealing rat right out of his hands while Ron retaliated by calling her a filthy Slytherin and blah blah blah.

"Here," she said, thrusing the rat into Lupin's hands."Now we can actually clear a thing or two up instead of wasting our time arguing. Do whatever it is you need to do so we can finally get some _real_ answers."

15.

"NO!" Harry yelled, propelling himself forward so that he stood between Pettigrew and his former friends. "You can't kill him-You can't."

Black and Lupin both looked shocked, but at the same time she couldn't help but silently thank her brother for showing at least an ounce of sense. Kathryn had been furious after heating Pettigrew admit that he'd sold out her parents to the Dark Lord. Beyond furious, even! And she would have been happy to let Professor Lupin and Black kill him, but her brother's interruption gave her a minute of clarity. A quick death was too good for a guy like Pettigrew and she wanted to know he was going to suffer.

"Harry, this piece of vermin is the reason you have no parents," Black growled. "This cringing bit of filth would have seen you die too, without turning a hair. You heard him. His own stinking skin meant more to him than your whole family."

"No, Harry's right," Kathryn said, speaking up. "You want to give him what he deserves? Let him rot in Azkaban with the Dementors, where he belongs."

"We'll take him up to the castle," Harry continued and she moved to stand next to her brother. "We'll hand him over to the Dementors and he can go to Azkaban, like Kathy said. But don't kill him…He can go to Azkaban…but don't kill him."

"Harry! You — thank you — it's more than I deserve — thank you, Kathryn —" Pettigrew, the freak, flung his arms around Harry's knees from behind and then moved to do the same thing to Kathryn.

"Get off me and don't even think about touching my sister," Harry spat. "I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it because — I don't reckon my dad would've wanted them to become killers — just for you."

"You're disgusting," Kathryn snarled, picking up where Harry left off. "You're disgusting and pathetic and if you think for one second that this is us sparing your life then you're also stupid and you are so lucky because if it were up to me you don't even _want_ to know what I would-"

"Kathryn," came the sound of Professor Lupin's voice, softer than it had been since she'd seen him, with his hand was on her arm and she felt a little more calm. "Help me tie him up, will you?"

16.

"Oh, my - He didn't take his potion tonight! He's not safe!"

"Run! Run. Now."

Harry leapt forward towards Ron, Professor Lupin's entire body was beginning to contort, and Sirius Black turned into a familiar, black and shaggy dog. Dog and werewolf fighting and Kathryn's brother was transfixed, but Kathryn? The minute things had started to get chaotic, her first thought was not "oh my!" like Hermione, or "Ron!" like her brother. It was none other than Peter Pettigrew and she whirled around in his direction, her wand pointed right at him. She did it because if she were him, it wwas the exact moment she'd choose to try and get away.

"Move one inch, I dare you," she told him, and he looked at her like a deer caught in the headlights. Realistically, there wasn't much she could actually have done to physically hurt him. Kathryn was a second year, so her curse arsenal was fairly limited, even for a Slytherin. But she was not about to let him get away. Pettigrew looked nervous for a moment, before diving forward for Professor's Lupin's discarded wand and Hermione let out a scream.

"Expelliarmus!" the spell came from Harry, but Kathryn was already on it.

"_Petrificus totalus!_" she shouted, at the same time, and both spells hit Pettigrew, knocking Professor Lupin's wand out of his hand and putting him in a full body bind. A low howl came from somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, and Werewolf-Lupin ran towards it. Black was still a dog, but he was lying on the ground, bleeding from his muzzle and his back.

"We'd better get them up to the castle and tell someone," said Harry, pushing his hair out of his eyes, trying to think straight. "Come on—"

There was this yelping, whining kind of noise coming from the lake, like a dying dog or something. Harry ran, with Hermione following, but Kathryn stayed. With an eye on Pettigrew, she moved to Professor Snape when she followed Harry with her eyes and saw a mist of Dementors gliding around the lake.

"Professor, wake up," she said frantically, shaking his shoulders. "You have to wake up..."

Kathryn could hear Harry's loud shouts of a spell she didn't know - but the most frightening part was when the shouts started to get weaker and so she started to get more frantic. The fog was so thick down by the lake that she couldn't see what was happening. Oh god, what if they came for her next? What if they'd hurt Harry?

"Professor Snape you need to wake up right this instance or I promise I will explode every cauldron in every class from here on out, I swear-"

Kathryn was babbling now, irrational and panicking, when the most astounding of things happened. She could see something very, very bright - bright like staring into the centre of the sun - making its way across the lake, bounding and...and the Dementors were starting to move? She stared, with wide eyes, as the ghostly figures began to retreat.

"Dont-be a dunderhead," coughed the weak voice of Professor Snape, who had begun to stir lightly.

"Professor!" Kathryn exclaimed, breathing a sigh of relief. "You have to help! Dementors, an-and Harry, and Peter Pettigrew...!"

"Pettigrew? You've been confunded," he said, brows furrowing, hand to his head as he sat up.

"No I haven't! He's lying right over there in a body bind," Kathryn argued. "He confessed to everything."

Snape looked at her and sighed a tired sigh.

"Kathryn, you need to listen to me-"

"No, Professor. You need to listen to _me_," she said. "I don't care about Sirius Black. I don't care that you hate him and you hated my dad and that all of them were jerks to you in school. I wasn't even born then so it's not my problem. But you know what is? The man who sold my parents out to You-Know-Who, the man whose fault it is that I'm an orphan and grew up with my horse-faced aunt and her giant, angry grape of a husband, is lying right there and he's _not_ Sirius Black. He's Peter Pettigrew and I want to see him get the Kiss. Oh, and my brother is over by the lake and I don't even know if he's alive because there were Dementors swarming everywhere. Can we focus on that instead?"

17.

"Miss Potter, are you sure that man is Peter Pettigrew?" the auror asked her, skepticism clear.

"Look, Madam Pompfrey already checked, I haven't been confunded," she countered, antagonistic. "And I already told you everything I saw and heard. So why don't you do you job and get the truth from him?"

Kathryn probably should have been more respectful towards law enforcement, but in the moment, she was too frustrated. They had both Black and Pettigrew in custody and why the hell were they wasting time talking to her? What she wanted was to get to the Hospital Wing to see Harry. Sure, he was an idiot and she hated him a lot of the time, but he was _her _idiot - her idiot and her brother and she had to know that he was okay.

"I assure you, we are doing our job," the woman said, her own frustration with the girl in front of her painfully clear. "And this is part of it."

"I saw them turn Weasley's pet rat into a human being and the human being responded to the name Peter Pettigrew and talked and acted like he was, okay? He eventually admitted to selling my parents out to You-Know-Who. So why shouldn't I believe he is actually Peter Pettigrew?"

18.

Pettigrew escaped and Kathryn was furious. Nobody was quite sure how, but they guessed the minute someone wasn't looking, he'd transformed and scurried away. He wasn't the only escapee that night, either - Hagrid's hippogriff had someone managed to get away before the executioner could do his job. But the Minister had agreed to give Sirius a proper trial in light of "recent evidence." Professor Snape was notably morose, and let it slip that Professor Lupin was a werewolf.

Upon hearing that Professor Lupin resigned, she and Harry apparently had the same idea, because when she arrived at his office, Harry was already there.

"You're the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we've ever had!" he was saying - she could hear him through the door. "Don't go!"

She wanted to wait until the two of them were done, but Kathryn wasn't sure how much time she had.

"Er, can I come in?" she asked, knocking; Professor Lupin gave her the go-ahead. He was busy emptying the last of his books, holding out the Invisibilty Cloak she'd hidden under to her brother.

"Yes, Kathryn?" Lupin asked, glancing towards her and Harry took the cloak. Kathryn made a mental note to ask about that later.

"I-well-I just wanted to say-" she struggled then, not comfortable saying what she wanted in front of Harry. "I just wanted to say thank, you know, for being a great professor and all this year-"

"I think we all owe you a thanks as well," he replied with a twitch of a smile. "From what I hear, if it weren't for you, Peter would have gotten away sooner and Sirius wouldn't be awaiting a trial."

"Yeah, well, what can I say? Slytherins are smarter than Gryffindors," she joked with a shrug.

"Be as that may, it was still a bit of a Gryffindor thing to do," he teased.

Kathryn wanted to say it wasn't. She hadn't done it for Black or for anyone else but herself. More than anything, she'd wanted to see that rat get what he deserved for the misery he'd caused in her life - for keeping her from never knowing what it was like to have paernts, for one, and for landing her with the Dursley's, among other things.

Harry looked like he was about to say something when there was another knock on the door - Professor Dumbledore. He'd come to say the carriage was ready at the gates for Lupin and that it was time to say goodbyes.

"Well — good-bye, Harry, and Kathryn," he said, smiling. "It has been a real pleasure teaching you. I feel sure we'll meet again sometime."

"Don't think you're getting away this easily," she told him. "You still have a lot of explaining to do."

Lupin looked at her for a moment, a steady kind of look, and smiled.

"Headmaster, there is no need to see me to the gates, I can manage…"

"Good-bye, then, Remus," said Dumbledore, somber. Lupin shifted the tank he was holding slightly in order to shake Dumbledore's hand. With a final nod at the two Potter siblings, he left the office. Harry sat down in the chair, looking rather glum. Glancing between her brother and her Headmaster, Kathryn got the distinct feeling that they were about to have a moment and she didn't want to be there to ruin it.

"I'll just..go now," she said awkwardly, heading for the door. "I have to...meet May? Yeah. I have to go meet May."

19.

The final period of the term was a bit of a blur for Kathryn. She kept wondering where Pettigrew was, wondering how Black's trial would go. Wondering if Draco Malfoy would ever shut up about the hippogriff getting away or if she did well on her exams. She would find out how Black's trial would go, because she was one of the witnesses, and when they started again in the fall, she'd find out if Malfoy had anything new to talk about. Her exam results came out on the last day, and to her relief, she'd done just dine. Maybe eventually she'd discover what Pettigrew was up to, but there was nothing she could do about that.

All of those thoughts made it hard to enjoy the end of term feast, which was already difficult considering Gryffindor had stolen the Quidditch Cup from Slytherin and had, to top it off, taken the House Cup for the third year in a row.

"Hey, anybody home in there?" May asked, waving her hand in front of Kathryn's face.

"Huh?"

"Don't be such a killjoy! It's nearly summer - be excited!"

But she couldn't stop being a killjoy because there was one thing that she couldn't stop wondering about, no matter how hard she treid. And that was if Professor Snape would stop looking so angry with her. It was also something she _could_ do something about.

That night, after the feast, she went to his office. It was her last chance - the Express would be there in the morning and they'd all be leaving on it and she wouldn't see him until September.

"Professor Snape?" she asked, cautious, peeking her head around the doorframe. He was sitting as his desk, quill in hand, but not writing anything. Just gripping it tightly and looking like he was somewhere else.

"Miss Potter," he answered, all stern and exactly like he'd been to her after everything. "I can't imagine you have a question about your exam results. They were favourable."

"Yes they were, sir," Kathryn agreed. "But, uh, that's not why I'm here."

"Then I suggest you state your purpose quickly because it is almost curfew."

Kathryn sighed. This was exactly what she'd meant when she she said he was angry. Sure, most of Hogwarts considered him a prickly, rude bat of a man, and he was. Everybody knew he favoured Slytherins in class, but it was more than that. Professor Snape expected the best from his Slytherins, and he wasn't _as_ prickly with them. He was... different with those in his house. He was different with _her_. Well, it was now or never - state her purpose, say what she came to say, be straight forward and don't play games.

"Sir, are you upset with me? Because that's really not fair of you," she started, and then it all came out in one, giant whoosing breath. "You've been treating me like - like a Gryffindor, or even worse, a Hufflepuff ever since that night! And I deserve to know why!"

This time, it was Professor Snape's turn to sigh. He pinched the bridge of his nose that way he did when he was exasperated.

"I hardly expect a child like you to understand, Miss Potter."

"Please don't patronise me like I'm stupid, sir!" was her indignant reply.

"I'm your professor, and you are a student as well as a child. I can and will patronise you- it's my job."

"You think I can't understand? That I can't understand what it's like to hold a grudge and hate someone...and wanting to be the one who gives them their just desserts and then be mad when everything goes wrong?" she asked, starting to get angry. "I hold the most enormous grudge against my brother for just being himself, so I understand that just fine, Professor! I understand better, though, what it's like to be on the receiving end of everyone's grudges - how my entire house has singled me out because of who my family is! How my aunt and uncle have always hated me and made my life miserable because they don't like magic and because my aunt is still bitter. I expect that from people but I thought you were different!"

"Kathryn-"

"Let me finish, sir," she pleaded, in front of his desk. He looked tired and agitated but so was she and that made it one of those times when she just couldn't hold her tongue. "I've never cared that you have a grudge against Harry, for whatever reason - join the club, you know? And I don't care care if you hold a grudge against Black, or against my father. I'm just asking that you don't take a school-boy grudge out on _me _just because I got in the way. Because it's really not fair to try and hold the fact that I _told the truth_ against me! They were _my_ parents, sir, and I never got to know them or get the chance to love them or even to hate them, so forgive me that I wanted answers and to see the right person in prison!"

"Are you done?" he asked, face impassive.

"Er...yes?" she replied, a bit bewildered.

"Then kindly remove yourself from my office. I should hardly think you'd like to serve detention for insubordination and insolence on your first day next year."

She hadn't expected that. 'That' being his impassivity in the face of her emotional outburst. Gulping, she turned to go.

"Oh, and Miss Potter?" he said as her hand reached for the doorknob.

"Yes, Professor?"

"What I am upset with is not your concern," he replied, voice tight. "But rest assured I am not upset with you, Kathryn. I am not taking my 'school-boy grudge' out on you, as you so eloquently put it. You are right - that would be rather juvenile of me. But if I were, as you accused, treating you like a Gryffindor or a Hufflepuff, I would not be so kind. Now go."

Kathryn was thankful for small mercies.

20.

The next day, much to May's delight, Kathryn was in a better mood. They were sitting on the train, laughing and giggling and making plans for the summer, when Harry popped by their compartment.

"Hey Kathy," he greeted. "And May. I have something for you."

"Yeah?" she asked. "What?"

"This is a letter from Sirius," he said, pulling a folded piece of parchment out of his pocket and handing it to her. "He wrote me one too, but this one is for you."

"Oh, um, thanks," was her wisty reply, reaching out to take it from him. Harry left shortly afterwards, and May was practically on the edge of her seat wanting to know what the letter said.

"C'mon, aren't you going to read it? Aren't you curious?"

"Of course I am! Maybe if you shut it for a minute I could concentrate!"

"Blah blah, just read it already!"

_Dear Kathryn,_

_I hope these letters found you and Harry before you reach your aunt and uncle - I'm not sure if they are used to owl post or if they would...take kindly to it. I got the impression from Harry that they aren't exactly the most friendly of people._

_I know you probably noticed that I'd been watching you over the summer - as a dog, of course, considering I was a wanted fugitive. I hope I didn't scare you too much. I'm under house arrest currently, at the house in London where I grew up. I haven't been here in ages and the place is disgusting. But that's beside the point._

_The point is that thanks to you, Harry, and his friends, I'll most likely be a free man in a month. I never imagined that would happen and I don't know what is going to happen after that. I'll probably see you at the trial (they told me you're going to be testifying, thank you for that as well). But I don't want that to be the last time I see either of you. Before, you know, all that chaos went down, Harry and I talked about him coming to live with me. Though I might not be your godfather too, that invitation is open to you, if you want it. _

_You might be a Slytherin, but I think I can get over that. _

_See you soon,_

_Sirius_

* * *

I think it's prudent to remind everyone that this story is AU, and not just in the way that Kathryn exists. But before anybody starts to moan, complain, or get even get excited - the rest of this story will not be going so off the books as this one, with Sirius being free and all. He's going to die, so don't get your hopes up (sorry guys, it hurts me too). Also, Kathryn will not be written into every exciting and dangerous thing that Harry & Co. get up to. She and May will be getting into their own mischief more and more and her fellow Slytherins will start to make more appearances!

Reviews are always appreciated!


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